This came up in another discussion, and I thought I would share the advice that Chris gave me on how to solve the problem with Riggs.

He referred to it as "forward fear" and by continuing to allow it you make the dog more fearful, and the attacking more vigorous. The problem is, this fear can and will translate to other things he is afraid of, including possibly people.

I broke him of attacking the vaccuum by putting him in a down and enforcing it. I then had my mom vaccuum closer and closer while I fed him treats. We went from him killing the vaccuum to her being able to vaccuum between his front legs with him looking in my hands for cookies.

He attacks my lawnmower on sight - whether it is off or on. If it's moving he's trying to rip the wheels off. We havn't started working on that yet, I just crate him.

Last edited by mnp13 on July 18th, 2006, 8:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Michelle

Inside me is a thin woman trying to get out. I usually shut the bitch up with a martini.

Thats what I did for Oscar. My bf thought it was funny to chase him with the vacuum. I moved out from living with the bf and into a TINY 150 sq. ft. bachelor apt. I could not have an 80 lb dog leaping over anything and everything to get away from the vacuum.
Had it sit next to him, treated.
moved it closer, treated.
Moved it back, turned it on, treated.
moved it closer, treated.
this is all while he holds a down.

now I can even vacuum him with the slim "couch crack" extention (he's had nasty dandruff before) and I think he actually likes the feeling of it, like getting a good scratch.

He doesn't like the vacuum but we have no more craziness and sometimes I even have to get him to move because he's tired and snoozing.

you'd have to know your dog to know if it's fear or a game. However, it's something you should stop, as they can hurt themselves, or worse, hurt your vaccuum (ok, so I'm protective of my Dyson, sue me.)

Michelle

Inside me is a thin woman trying to get out. I usually shut the bitch up with a martini.

Solomon does the same thing with the vacuum...it is getting on my nerves. He literally tries to tear the vacuum up. I can have it sitting in the room right in front of him, and he will sniff it without going crazy, but as soon as I move it, he goes nuts. I have started crating him upstairs or putting him outside when I vacuum. He goes nuts over the lawnmower and weed whacker too, but not as bad as the vacuum.

That's interesting on Chris saying that the fear can translate to other things. Pookie HATED the vacuum and lawn mower, but it never translated to anything else.

I was just going to post a similar question. Overall, Hannibal is not a
skitzy / anxious dog at all. In fact, most people comment on how mellow
he is at 9 months old. I don't know if it transferred from the vacuum,
but Hannibal doesn't like any lawn tools. Is this a protection thing?
does he think the wheelbarrel, mower, ect is going to hurt me? Just a
thought, because he acts that way when I splash around / swim in the
pool, but he has no problem when I just float. I guess my main question
is; am I going to have to desensitize him to all brooms, mops,
weed-wackers, ect? That is going to be quite a lot of "down~~~~>treat"
sessions.

Well, I'm glad we're not the only ones who try to eat the vacuum. (And I used to laugh at my neighbor's 'crazy' Fox terrier that tried to kill the ironing board, hoses, rake, etc). Little did I know.... At first our Ruby (adopted last Nov) barked at and tried to kill the vaccum. Then I chased her with it a few times thinking it was funny and then finally realized she was running from room to room in fear, (not a game) so I stopped. She will hardly walk past it if it's out or stay in the same room with it. Now she hates our dustbuster (runs from it) and lawn mower (tries to kill it - almost punctured the bag!). Interestingly, however, she is very interested/attracted to loud noises. She comes in when we're sawing or using a dremmel or drill or even hammer/banging noises. And I was so pleased on the 4th of July that the books didn't scare her one bit. In fact, she would run toward the loudest noises! Beats my neighbor's crazy fox terrier that is terrified on the 4th and quivers. But then that's why I wanted a pit - I HATE little quivery dogs! Haven't crated yet on the vac/mower but just might have to - but the attacking seemed to lessen for awhile and has now come back...and I don't chase her anymore tho I sometimes rev the dust buster from a distance to see the reaction.

concreterose wrote:That's interesting on Chris saying that the fear can translate to other things. Pookie HATED the vacuum and lawn mower, but it never translated to anything else.

I think it would depend on what it is. Did she encounter anything that she feared as much as the vaccuum?

Nah, she wasn't scared of too much of anything. The vacuum was her only archenemy.

I tried the training exercise you used with Solomon while my sister was vacuuming today. After a five minute WWF session between Solomon and I to 'convince' him to lay down, he did great! After she set the vacuum against the wall when she finished, he acted like he wanted to go over to it, and I just called him to me and told him to lay down. He did it right away

when i have fosters in they are all in the beginning scared of the vaccumm, but i just ignore their barking .. i think too that by them watching my dogs just lay there they get used to it.. every foster except one that i had had no issues with the vaccum after they left.

concreterose wrote:Nah, she wasn't scared of too much of anything. The vacuum was her only archenemy.

I tried the training exercise you used with Solomon while my sister was vacuuming today. After a five minute WWF session between Solomon and I to 'convince' him to lay down, he did great! After she set the vacuum against the wall when she finished, he acted like he wanted to go over to it, and I just called him to me and told him to lay down. He did it right away

that's great! I'm glad it worked.

Michelle

Inside me is a thin woman trying to get out. I usually shut the bitch up with a martini.

I guess my main question is; am I going to have to desensitize him to all brooms, mops, weed-wackers, ect? That is going to be quite a lot of "down~~~~>treat"sessions.

Yes, it is something you want to work on.The reason is that your dog benefits from being able to be reasonably under control in those situations.He might need a little help.Any situation where a dog gets worked up, fear, excitement or whatever is causing an excessive behavior needs to be addressed.The more the mind stays on somethind the harder it is to snap the dog out of it, resulting in even more aggression in dogs who are prone to it.I have been working on a dog I have here for quite some time now.This is a fearful dog and often with fearful animals fear can turn into aggression.That is where the problem is, when the dog looses its mind and the fear and lack of solid nerves decide what the next action is.If it is inappropriate redirection there is a problem.When this dog first saw and heard the vacuum was when I just took him in and he was crated.He lunged, growled and tried to bust out of his crate grabbing the bars with his teeth.Both fear and frustration for not being able to target the object that scared him.The following day I put him in the kitchen, behind a metal gate, and the same behavior repeated when he saw me pulling out the vacuum.He broke two plastic attachment and put a dent on the metal tube of my beloved vacuum.
I started to throw a new bone or treats to him before I turned on the vacuum, to give him the chance to do something else instead of freaking out over the vacuum.If the behavior was really excessive I also let him know it wasn't acceptable with a "hey! Knock it off".No physical actions or request to follow up a sit or down stay, he was not ready to do it anyway.I could force a dog down or restrain it but that doesn't change where its mind is.He would still be panicking without solving the problem.It is more productive to find another way in this case, imo.Tux is responsive to a certain tone of voice and disappointment so he was able to give me random eye contacts and we went from there.I vacuum every day so the vacuum was becoming something usual to him.I have had him since last December and he is now able not only to ignore the vacuum but to be vacuumed.I am going to link some videos of him, you will notice on the video that he wags is tail, he is fairly relaxed and even gnaw on a bone while I vacuum him.That is good, he can put his mind into the bone or me instead of grabbing the vacuum.The vacuum attachment is moved above his head as well, which is something scary for a fearful animal, on top of the vacuum sound.I can gently push him on his side to pet his belly, which means he is not afraid of taking away any defense in front of the vacuum.It is a combination of trust and slow desensitization.
We are now working on the weedeater, which I expect it to be quite a task and the poor lawn mower that has holes on its wheels..they are the devil in his mind! Here is a link to the videos, Tux is the black dog.Excuse the annoying baby talk, he likes it, listen to it and he is being a good boy.